July 18 Dateline

Famous Birthdays

 1635 - Robert Hooke,  FRS, English polymath, architect and natural philosopher. He was financially impoverished scientific inquirer as a young adult but came into wealth and good reputation following his actions as Surveyor to the City of London after the great fire of 1666 (in which he appears to have performed more than half of all the surveys after the fire). At that time, he was also the curator of experiments of the Royal Society, and a member of its council, Gresham Professor of Geometry. He was an important architect of his time and was instrumental in devising a set of planning controls for London, the influence of which remains. 

1670 - Giovanni Bononcini (or Buononcini), Italian opera composer. Here's his Baroque music:  Baroque mementos ~ Giovanni Bononcini ~ La nemica d'Amore fatta amante (1693) ~ "Pur ti riveggio." Accessed July 18, 2017.

1811 - William Makepeace Thackeray, British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society. (William Makepeace Thackeray: Vanity Fair. Uploaded by Eric Masters, accessed July 18, 2017.)

1821 - Pauline Viardot-Garcia, French mezzo-soprano (She was a leading nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue, and composer of Spanish descent. Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, her name appears in various forms. Here are two songs by Pauline Viardot: 'Aimez-moi ma mignonne' (from Six chansons du XVe siècle, published 1886) sung by Françoise Masset accompanied by Françoise Tillard (on an 1843 Erard piano) and 'Hai luli!' (from Six mélodies et une havanaise, published 1880) sung by Cecilia Bartoli accompanied by Myung-Whung Chung. )

1902 - (Mary) Jessamyn West, American author of short stories and novels, notably The Friendly Persuasion (1945). She received an honorary Doctor of Letters (Litt.D) degree from Whittier College in 1946, and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in 1975.

1918 - Nelson Mandela (born Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela), South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.

1921 - John Glenn, Astronaut (5th man in space) and former US Senator. By 2007, he is still the oldest man to have gone into space, reaching the orbit in 1998 at the age of 77.

1947 - Steve Forbes (born Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes Jr.), American publishing executive. He was a candidate in the 1996 and 2000 Republican Presidential primaries. Forbes is the Editor-in-Chief of Forbes, a business magazine.

1950 - Sir Richard (Charles Nicholas) Branson, British business magnate, author and former philanthropist. He founded the Virgin Group in the 1970s, which controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age.

Lefties:
Businessman/Politician Steve Forbes
Author Jessamyn West

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 18 July - On This Day.

Historical Events

1814 - Matthew Flinders' book A Voyage to Terra Australis is published, in which he advocates using the name "Australia" for  the southern continent. He dies the following day.   

1898 - Marie Curie and husband Pierre Curie announce they have discovered a new, highly unstable chemical element, which they call polonium after Marie's homeland, Poland. It is the first element discovered by radioactive analysis.

1898 - French writer Emile Zola takes refuge in England, embroiled in the raging bitterness of the Dreyfus affair.

1936 - The Spanish Civil War begins when General Francisco Franco leads an army uprising in Spanish North Africa and in a radio broadcast urges the army in Spain to rise against the republican government.

1976 - Nadia Comaneci, Romanian gymnast, is awarded the first perfect score in Olympic gymnasts at the Montreal Olympics. Then aged 14, Romanian Nadia Comaneci became the star of the Montreal Olympics in 1976, when this day in July 18, 1976, she performed on the uneven bars that earned her a perfect 10, the first perfect score in Olympic gymnasts history.

Nadia Comaneci

Image source: Wiki/D.Gilbert

1995 - The oldest known musical instrument, a 45,000-year-old bear bone with four holes made along it, is found in the Indrijca River valley in Slovenia.

 

2013 - The world of musicology lost one of its rising stars. Dr Alison Jayne Dunlop died tragically at the age of 28 in the year she published The Life and Works of Gottlieb Muffat (1690-1770). In his review Professor Harry White of University College Dublin describes this work as representing "a massive act of scholarly retrieval." Dr Dunlop had a fascination for the"forgotten" musicians of 18th Century Vienna and we can only mourn the wealth of publications she may have given us. (Information kindly provided by Liz Ringrose, a good friend. July 18, 2015.)





Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org.


(c) June 2007. Updated July 18, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.